Editorial Section:
One evening as I was idling away in the Draft Room I got the following request:
Quagmire11: hey hamtastic, i have a request as an avid reader, can you give some thought into an article on having [2 Headed Giant] prize yielding events?

Personally, I love fielding requests from my readers as it enables me to think and research areas of the game I don't typically do on my own.  This is one such awesome request as I must admit, I never really thought much about this before Quagmire proposed it to me.  So, slip on your giggity shoes, we're getting knee deep in quagmire's question!

First, let's all get on the same page in regards to the rules.  The rules that I found here are a bit different than what we are used to on MTGO.  (with the obvious 'given' of Multiplayer on MTGO being way below par).  Some things of note:

Team starts at 30 life
All communication is allowed
Teams take their turn at once
If one person on a team loses the game, the team loses that game
Unified Deck Construction (only basic lands can be shared more than 4x in the combined decks).

That's not the only differences, but it's some of the major ones that separate the two formats. 

Secondly, let's acknowledge some shortcomings.  Let's face it, MTGO V3 is not a finished product (understatement) and Multiplayer is WAAYYYY worse than any part of V3 save leagues, which only trumps it because leagues don't exist.  Looking at what we have missing from MTGO is a laundry list of MP items.  Things like seating arrangements, unified deck construction, simul-turn team structures, good communication between 2HG heads... and so on.  I am fully aware of how far away these things are from being done, and, well, I'm going to have to continue on as if we have found a magical land where these items are resolved.  

Lastly, let's get to the meat of the question and figure out how prizes would have to work and how WotC could make the prizes work within the current levels on Mt. MTGO.  The major hurdle that 2 Headed Giant creates is that things must be divisible by two so that the prizes can be equally given to each player in the team.  None of this 4-3-2-2 stuff.  Why?  Because if both players are putting tickets in, and they would have to, to avoid 'trusting' one player with the tickets and the prizes, then both players would need to get equal prizes.  

The lowest level of Constructed on Mt. MTGO, as you may recall, are the 2 man queues which provide a low cost, low risk way for people to get into a format.  The Pauper 2 man queues were the hallmark of the bottom level of Mt MTGO as they fired non-stop once they were announced and have done a lot of work legitimizing the queues for many other formats.   No way to split three packs amongst two players.  But getting back to 2HG and the 2 man queues... they'd need to be replaced with "2 Team Queues", and each team member would need to put in two tickets, and each team member in the winning team would then get a booster (8 tickets into two packs maintains the ratio).  That's the easy transition... the tougher transition would be anything moving upwards since most things allow for odd numbers of packs which, as mentioned are not a good idea in this type of event.  The options are to increase the tickets slightly and increase the prizes slightly too; or possibly to just have each player pay six tickets and have each player get the prizes that typically are associated with the one on one queues.  Meaning that each player of the team would pony up six tickets and each player would get five, three or two boosters depending on the teams finishing place.  

That's all based on Constructed team play... but what about Sealed?  That is a bit more difficult to work out, as the server has to keep track of who opened which cards despite another person possibly playing with them.  For example, in paper 2hg, each player opens their packs then the teams build their decks out of the pool of cards.  On MTGO, that's a very different approach to collection management than it's ever been used to and would need to be tested a lot to ensure the integrity of the collection, the event, and the cards.  However, for the overall prices the above duplication table would probably be the best, and simplest, way to make things work out properly.  

Two Headed Giant is a great way for an experienced player to help a newer player or for two long time players to change up the routine.  Also, if the above fixes could go into effect it could open up a great deal more fun on MTGO for a lot of reasons.  The ability to lend cards for one event is woefully absent from MTGO.  The 'other person's collection' code could be useful to plug that hole.  The ability to have unified format adds a huge variety to the game of Magic, as witnessed by the MTGO Community Cup last year and ability for it to keep it from being Jund v Jund v Jund v Jund.  I think that a lot of good things would come from a better, and more competitive, multiplayer experience on MTGO.

Discussion Items:
M10 Redemption Out of Stock -
The thread is titled "Another one bites the dust", which pretty much sums it up.  

NO CLAN LIMITS!!!!
Finally!!!  Those familiar with my rants know full well my disdain for arbitrary limits on any programming project.  Why 32?  Why 50?  Why 32?  Why 75?  Why 999?  Those have all been limits to certain things throughout the time I've played MTGO.  Thankfully many have been revisited in the past few years and things have largely improved.  Now, another arbitrary limit has met its demise.  Say farewell to CLAN LIMITS!  Now you too can have a chat window with all your clan mates, regardless of the size!

Price Section:
Sadly I didn't get prices this week in time for the show, check back next week when I should have some old favorites like the Ham Jones charts and the pack price breakdown!

Tournament Section:
Behold, the calendar approaches:

Conclusion:
That wraps a pretty quick State this week, I should be getting back into the swing of things in the next few weeks as I settle into my new life style and get past some of the really big issues I've been working for the past week!